U.S.-funded Kenyan forces are ramping up a campaign of extrajudicial executions.

‘Yesterday, the Daily Beast’s Margot Kiser, reporting from Kenya, shined a light on the likely existence of Kenyan death squads aimed at people the security forces see as Islamic preachers sympathetic to al-Shabaab. Kiser wrote that there had been a spate of murders in recent months. The goal of the extrajudicial executions, according to Kiser, is to “exterminate and intimidate people believed to be associated with the Al Shabaab movement in neighboring Somalia.” Religious leaders told Kiser that Kenyan security forces “are targeting them unfairly for persecution if not indeed for summary execution,” though local authorities say they have intelligence linking imams to al-Shabaab.

Kiser profiled one death squad target in particular: Abubakar Shariff Ahmed, an Islamic preacher who admitted to recruiting young people to wage war on the Kenyan government. He preached at the Musa mosque, allegedly associated with Islamist extremism. On February 2nd, Kenyan authorities raided the mosque, leading to clashes that resulted in the deaths of eight people, including a policeman’.

“Economics of Extinction” – Newsweek magazine; January 25, 2013; International Illegal Trade in Wildlife: Threats and U.S. Policy https://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL34395.pdf

‘Some suggest that armed groups in Africa and Asia, which happen to be located in biologically diverse areas, are using natural resources to finance violent and politically destabilizing activities.6 Various observers have alleged the involvement of non-state armed groups, including separatist and Islamist militant groups, in Africa and South Asia’. 6 Margot Kiser, “The Economics of Extinction,” Newsweek, Jan. 25, 2013.